Watching this in a theatre, filled of fans was amazing. And they were young and old, new and long-time fans alike. And it’s wonderful, seeing the youthful crowd, the new fans, listening to them talk with wonder about the history of the show… I know many olde sk00l Whovians like to scoff and snort and roll their eyes and complain about the new fans. Oh, that breaks my heart. We were all new fans once, we didn’t know the history of the Doctors before we watched. Time for everyone to drink a big glass of Get Over Yourself juice.

But, seriously, sharing it with a group of a couple hundred people, all emotionally invested. The collective laughs, sighs, gasps, cheering, applause. I couldn’t have imagined a better way to see this. And, though it was hard, I managed to see it without any more spoilers.

I see people talking about “mixed feelings” about the episode. Not me. It was wonderful, it was amazing, and it gave me what I’ve been yearning for for the past eight years.

Don’t get me wrong. I understand why they wrote Gallifrey out of the show for the relaunch in 2005. There would be too much backstory, too much baggage, it would weigh down too much and the new fans would be confused, or felt excluded, and they would not have flocked to it the way they did and the show probably would not have had a 50th anniversary special.

It was brilliant, what they did. They wrote Gallifrey out, made The Doctor the “last” of the Time Lords, and Eccleston got to mope and be full of anger and angst – and it was delightful. He was the Wounded Doctor. Rose helped him heal, and then it was time to regenerate.

But, despite knowing all that, I have yearned for the return of Gallifrey. I love the Time Lords (though I do consider them the greatest of all the monsters that The Doctor has ever had to fight off – and I’m not even talking about The Master, my favourite Time Lord of all.) I love the mythos of Gallifrey and the Time Lords and how so many alien races knew of them and they were not hardly ever favorable towards The Doctor’s people.

So, I have been waiting. When we were teased with the return of Gallifrey in The End of Time, oh… my hunger was enflamed. I needed Gallifrey back.

This blog, revisiting (and visiting for the first time, as the case may be) so many stories involving the Time Lords, involving Gallifrey, or involving knowledge OF the Time Lords/Gallifrey… that exacerbated things.

So, walking into this, knowing it was about the War Doctor, knowing that he was responsible, somehow, for the fall of Gallifrey, the end of the Time War… I wasn’t sure what we were going to get, but there was NO WAY IN HELL I remotely thought that we’d get a whisper of a chance of getting Gallifrey back.

I just watched it again, before writing this blog post (Sunday night, about 10:30pm, December 1st.) I cried, several times. I even rewound and watched several scenes more than once… and cried each time.

Tears of joy. Tears of enthrallment, enrapture, amazement.

Tears of hurt, for The Doctors, as Ten and Eleven (hey, that whole numbering thing… I guess we’re just going to have to stick with what we have been doing and have the “War Doctor” sitting between Eight and Nine, unnumbered) join the War Doctor, saying he won’t have to do it on his own.

Tears as I begged them not to do it.

Tears as they didn’t.

And, then, the undreamt. All THIRTEEN Doctors showing up to save the day. Of course it would take all thirteen. How could it not? It had to. Something like this couldn’t be done by one Doctor, not even three.

Gallifrey Falls No More. Oh. Oh, yes. Damn skippy.

And my Doctor. Approximately thirty years ago, I watched Logopolis for the first time ever. And saw my Doctor fall to his death. And regenerate into a mamby-pamby blonde twit. (Ok, I’m being a bit harsh, but I was a teenaged boy who had just lost his Doctor. And Four wasn’t my first Doctor, Three was, actually… but Four is, and always will be MY Doctor.) I lost him and… he never returned. (Not to video, at least – I do understand there are some delightful Big Finish original audios with Tom Baker, so I will have to pursue those.)

I had no idea Tom was in this. I had no clue to expect him.

You should have heard the theatre when he spoke, when he addressed Eleven for the first time. The collective intake of breath… the choked emotions… everyone was stunned (and I’m sure some knew or guessed or something – but I bet you they were caught in the spell, too.)

Oh, this wasn’t going to be a long post, but here we are. I’ve been crying for half of it, too.

I am so excited to see the Christmas special, to see Peter Capaldi step into those shoes. But, for now, I am so, so, so happy and touched and overwhelmed by the 50th anniversary special.

As always, there are still so many questions. Will they go to Trenzalore? Will they find Gallifrey? What IS The Doctor’s name and will we ever learn it? (And my question, will The Doctor ever go visit Susan as he promised?)